2024-07-30 04:29:53
On two consecutive days – on July 17 and 18, the summer record in electricity consumption was broken
This summer’s record-breaking hot days and the July 1 electricity price hike have put a few families on the hook for extra expenses. For some, electricity bills have increased from 40% to more than double.
A household installs two air conditioners in an 80 square meter apartment in the capital’s “Nadezhda” district. Since they are at work during the day, they turn them on in the evening at 19-20 degrees and leave them like that until morning.
Here’s the recap of the bill they’ve already paid –
from June 16 to It’s July 16 51 BGN, year earlier for same period was BGN 18.
This means an increase of 2.8 times. If a comparison is made with the previous reporting period – from May 17 to June 15, then BGN 33 was paid, or the July invoice is 54% higher.
The owner of an apartment in the “Vitosha” district in Sofia paid his supplier BGN 92.40 for electricity for a one-month period until July 26. His bill was previously BGN 49.96 – the increase is almost double.
A two-member family in a three-room apartment plus a kitchen in the capital’s “Sveta Troitsa” neighborhood lets in a rare air conditioner and a stove.
The device for cooling works the most for 1 hour in the evening
A dishwasher and washing machine are used daily, and a vacuum cleaner is used twice a week. The bill for 30 days, which covers parts of June and July, is BGN 26.94. For the same period in 2023, they paid BGN 24.84.
The owner of a house of 80 square meters in the Pavlovo district, who traditionally has low heating bills, of the order of BGN 100 because of the well-built modern house, also has low electricity bills. With the air conditioner turned on for 2-3 hours in the morning – from 10 to 12 o’clock, and evening cooling with a set temperature of 19 degrees, for June-July he paid BGN 11.50, for the previous period the amount was BGN 8.50.
The owner specifies that his air conditioner is in the living room and also cools the hallway and one bedroom. He states that he does not use much electricity as he lives alone. But the main reason for its low bills is good insulation. However, his bill has increased by 40%, he commented.
In Plovdiv, the last electricity bill in an apartment of 60 square meters was BGN 67.09. It was for the period from mid-June to July, when the air conditioner worked around the clock.
For the previous 30 days, electricity consumption in the same apartment was BGN 60.34. In an 82 sq. m apartment, they will pay BGN 73, but there the air conditioner does not work at night, and the water heater is not used, because the apartment is on central heating. A month earlier, people there paid BGN 1.15 more.
Let’s recall that from July 1 there is and new prices of household electricity,
determined by the Commission for Energy and Water Regulation. Therefore, in the invoices, if the report period covers days from June and July, there are two segments – with old prices and with new ones. So, by the July days, the increase in the price of electricity will also be calculated.
According to the decision of KEVR, on average, since July 1, the price of electricity in the country has increased by 1.77%. For “Electrohold” subscribers in Western Bulgaria, it increased the most – by 3.10%. Households in South-Eastern Bulgaria who are customers of EVN pay 1.85% more than before, and for customers of “Energo-Pro” from North-Eastern Bulgaria the electricity is even cheaper by 0.49%. So the increase in the price of electricity will be felt mostly in Western Bulgaria.
If the household from the cold your home not with open ones windows, and air conditioning and fan, that the bill will swell up
The final suppliers divided their customers into groups with different reporting periods of the electricity meters, so that in the last bill they got 10-15 days from July, most invoices do not even calculate the electricity draw on the hottest days – 16, 17 and 18 July.
In terms of load on the electricity system, that is, in terms of domestic consumption and exported electricity, the summer record was improved on two consecutive days.
The last one was recorded 3 years ago when the peak hour consumption was 5123 megawatts, this happened on June 29, 2021.
On July 17 this year, it was broken at 2 p.m. when consumption reached 5,311 megawatts of system load.
The next day, July 18, again at 2 p.m., this number was surpassed and hit 5,385 megawatts. Then came days of slight cooling. (What were the loads and what is the forecast – see the graph.)
“24 Chasa” also asked the electricity distribution companies what the consumption was during the past days of the hot July.
“ERM Zapad” – a company of “Electrohold”, answered us that the maximum load was also on the 18th of the month and again at 2 p.m., then for Western Bulgaria it was 1504 megawatts. The average – for the period of 1 to July 24, is 1,052 megawatts.
For the whole of July 2023, the average load is 1401 megawatts, for the days from July 1 to 24 – 1268, and on July 18 at 2 p.m. – 1368 megawatts.
“Elektrorazpradelenie Yug” – a company of EVN that distributes electricity in Southeastern Bulgaria, announced that on July 11 the load was 1477 megawatts, on July 18 – 1595 megawatts, and on July 24 – 1399 megawatts. The load reached on July 18 is the maximum for “Electric Distribution South” for summer 2024, for now. (24 cups)
4 times bigger sales of air conditioners, for installation you can wait a month
Every year during the hot season, the sale of air conditioners triples and quadruples compared to the other seasons of the year, and 2024 is no exception, said Bozhidar Kolev – co-owner of the Technopolis and Praktiker chains.
“In normal times, the installation of an air conditioner is organized within 2-3 days, but the capacity of the installation groups cannot be increased in direct proportion to the sales, and it happens to wait longer,” he adds.
The waiting time depends on the place of residence. In bigger cities, for example, things happen faster, but even there at the moment there is a wait of at least two weeks. Outside of them, an installation group can come after a month. Moreover, in such settlements
the transport to the place is paid additionally
For appliances bought from Zora, there is also a minimum of 2 weeks waiting and even more than 3 weeks if the appliance has to be installed in another populated place. Only in September, the installation time is reduced to within 3-4 days, the chain said.
Usually, appliance stores in our country include the installation of an air conditioner in the price of the appliance, regardless of whether it is on sale or not. But it is a common work, where the outdoor unit is no more than 3 meters from the indoor one. Does it have to be further and if the customer wants the cables and pipes to be hidden or the building has some features and holes need to be drilled,
is paid extra
In our country, there are also quite a few repair shops for the installation of air conditioning equipment, and from their price list it can be seen that the usual price for the installation of 1 medium-power air conditioner is about BGN 200. But in the summer heat, even these repair shops are overloaded with work, and many of them have contracts with retail chains and rarely accept orders from citizens.
Technicians say that people rarely pay attention to the fact that the air conditioner is a capricious device and needs regular maintenance. His filter for example
must be removed and cleans at least once a month
At least once a year, the device needs professional maintenance, which costs BGN 60-70. Otherwise, over time, the filters become clogged, the air does not pass freely and the device consumes much more current for the same work. Not to mention that there is a danger that the freon will almost completely evaporate or the drain pipe will become clogged and they will have to be replaced.